All of the adult fish that I caught this weekend were brook trout. They must be stocked because I've not seen them in this creek before. This is the stream that I got my new-to-me Tenkara Rod Company Kita, and it worked really well on this trip. I was fishing with size #12 and #14 unweighted wet flies.
I haven't tied flies in hand for a couple of months. I caught a juvenile spotted bass with one of these on the Ocmulgee River yesterday. It was the only fish that I caught, and I caught it before my first cast! The fly was drifting in the water while I was peeling line off of the reel.
The silk thread came from a lot of vintage silk on eBay.
I'm working on Gunnar Brammer's Chosen One streamer pattern. These hooks (Gamakatsu B10s #1/0) aren't quite big enough for the full fuzzy fiber head. If I drop down to a #1 or a #2, I can tie the same fly and leave the head off; I think they will make really nice deceivers without the bulky head.
This material is a kanekalon product called Easy Braid. It is way less expensive than the premium craft fur products marketed for tying streamers.
Taking a short walk during the drizzling rain while waiting for my son’s game to start 😊
There was a nice trail along this stream in the West Chester University property. Sipuwa means streams, and Sipuwas is wild plum in Lenape Language 😉
This is a good American IPA. Nothing special, but it is solid IPA and well balanced 😊
On a separate note, it takes me at least 40 minutes to get to this creek. As it is not stocked with trout anymore, it is open to fishing all year round, but its water quality seems to be declining 😞
But my son caught many Rock bass with a fly rod on a summer day 😉
Before heading home after fly fishing, I stopped by this little creek. Although many anglers would say fishing is great even without catching any fish, which is true, I am pretty sure catching a fish makes the day even greater 😉
To cheer up my sad feeling, I checked another creek. I didn’t fish here, but this is a beautiful creek 😊
The water looks nice. I didn’t fish, just taking a little walk while kids are warming up for a soccer game 😉 Today is probably a very good day for fishing, but I simply don’t have the time to fish as my son has soccer games in two separate places, driving a lot 😊
I went camping this past week and it got down into the 20s at night. This is so far my coldest camping trip, and it wasn't super successful. Wasn't properly prepared for the cold. I did learn some things that will make my next winter camping trip more successful.
I didn't catch a fish. I also forgot my book. Here is a picture of me tying a fly in my tent before bed using my headlamp.
Spending the morning checking around creeks in the Downingtown area while my son is in a soccer training session. Too muddy after rain, I didn’t fish 🙁
It looks like a good creek, there are nice walking trails along the creek 😊 There are some good looking spots. I might come back for fly fishing 🤔
My father did not really teach me how to fish as far as I remember. But he always took me fishing (bait fishing). He always caught fish, while I struggled. One day, I suggested that we use artificial flies. He told me, you wouldn’t catch much, so not fun. Maybe this is why I fly fish. If I use baits, I would never beat him. But at the end of the day, fishing is not about the methods, it is about how to identify where the fish are and understanding the nature 😊
I had a few hours to spend in this put-and-take fishery 😊
At this point, it is pretty hard to find even a single trout 🤔
But I accomplished one of my today’s goals - catch one trout to feed myself who is a pescatarian - while enjoying walking and fishing (tenkara) in the rain 😉
When I start using a regular fly rod, it it hard to switch back to a tenkara rod. But when I switch back to tenkara, it is also hard to go back to a regular fly rod - I love both 😊
But this tenkara rod, only 10 inches when collapsed (12 feet when extended), can be carried in my small fishing sling bag as I often hike and walk a lot more than actually fishing. I think I will be using this for a while 🤔
Passing by a small tributary while tenkara fishing. I never fished this tributary🤔
Lots of gravels and rocks without much water. But I know there are some pools upstream that have small fish 😉
I also realized that I never checked the temperature of this tributary during summer. Considering that this confluence is a good fishing spot, the water may be colder than the main stream 🤔
The great blue herons have figured out where the trout are stocked. They line up with the anglers to catch fish, but they do not practice catch and release.
It was very hard to fly fish – the creek was full of colorful fallen leaves 😐
Slow moving water – full of leaves on the surface. Fast moving water – full of leaves in the water column. My flies hit leaves. So, I was able to make fish happy😊
Each sandwich is different with different ingredients and got an ID 😊
Now I am going to go fly fishing while other members of my family are in Japanese language school (my wife does volunteering and kids study, half day) 😉 Once we are all back, we will have lunch and head for a youth soccer game ⚽️